Statement-blank.



No. 759,215. PATENTED MAY 3, 1904. G:-v W. DONNING.

STATEMENT BLANK.

APPLICATION I'ILD JUNB 17, 1901.

NO MODEL.

INVENTOR 'UNITED STATES Patented. May 3, 1904:.`

PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE VV. DONNING, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALE TO HARRY T. AMBROSE, OF ORANGE, NEVV J ERSEY.

STATEIVIENT-BLANK.

SPECIFICATION formng part of Letters Patent No: 759,215, dated May 3, 1904.

Application filed .Tune 17, 1901. Serial No. 64,888. (No model.)

To all witam, 'lit ma]] conccrn:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. DoNN1NG, a citizen of the United States, residing at East Orange, in the county of Essex and State of New J ersey,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Statement-Blanks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and eXact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The object is to facilitate the rendition of accounts either' monthly, Weekly, 01' daily, to minimize labor in the preparation of such accounts, to effect accuracy therein, and to afford easy and ready means for the detection and correction of error, and generally to simplify the systems of bookkeeping commonly followed in large business liouses, at the same time to obtain one or more duplicate records or facsimiles of the original for permanent oflice record, thus obviating the necessity of itemizing a sales journal or ledger, as is now the custom, and to afiord customers the benefit of clear type-written statements as a substitute for those written by hand, which are often illegible because of haste in their preparation. Furthermore, by the use of my invention a ledger will be made to last very much longer than usual, thus reducing the number required during' the year and saving time and money and the annoyance of numer- 'ous complaints, as each item on the statement prepared under my invention is in printing.

As is well known, in the rendition of accounts by business houses it is universally the practice to make itemized statements from the ledger where these books are used in any establishment or from sales-slips, this necessitating the writing of each item twoor three times, and in the event that a statement should be lost its reproduction will require a repetition of the labor involved initially in its preparation. Moreover, these accounts are genduce to a minimum the Work of the bookkeeper in preparing accounts and the expense usually accruing from the present methods of keeping accounts.

To this end the invention consists, generally stated, in a statement sheet or blank preferably divided into two parts, constituting an original and a d u plicate, separated by a line of perforations to permit of the original statement being1 detached from the duplicate. The original statement is preferably provided in this instance with the following columns, separated by appropriate ruling, viz: a datecolumn, an items-column, an extension or price column, a totals-column, and a creditscolumn. It will be understood that a greater or less number of columns may be employed, if desired. The d uplicate statement, which is the larger, is provided with means for attachment to a binder and with space on which may be entered the department and sales-persons name or number or any other particulars not to be shown on the original. If desirable, the original only may be provided with a suitable heading whereon is imprinted the name of the merchant and any other descriptive matter commonly exhibited on bill-heads. lt is to be understood that this form of sales-sheet is adapted more particularly for use in connection with what is known as a book-7 or flat-platen type-Writer, although it is adapted to be used in connection with ordinary type-writers. To cause the duplicate statement to be an exact counterpart of the original statement, in the use of the statement a sheet of manifolding material is interposed between the two statement-blanks, so that When the original is folded. over the duplicate two statements eXactly the same in every particular are presented. Manifolding material may, if desired, be sold with the statcments or it may be a part of the Writing-machine. The original statement may then be detached from the duplicate statement and forwarded to thecustomer. The duplicate statements may be laid away separately or may be bound in a book or holder in regular order and be held in place in any suitable manner, as by the employment of ordinary paper-fasteners or of tapes.

It is to be understood, of course, that three or more statement-sheets may be used and likewise the requisite number of manifoldingsheets.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and in which like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts, I have illustrated one embodiment of my invention, though others may of course be employed and be within the spirit and scope of my invention.

Figure l is a view in plan exhibiting one sheet of a ledger laid out fiat. Fig. 2 is a similar view exhibiting the original statement folded over the duplicate, acorner of the original statement being curled upward to show the carbon-Sheet or manifolding material.

Referring to the drawings, I have shown one account-Sheet, in which A designates the original, and B the duplicate, the two being separated by a line of perforations (o of suitable length, the original being' preferably narrower than the duplicate to present a space b, on

which may be entered the department and sales-persons name or number or other particulars not to be shown on the original. Both the original and the duplicate statements may be serially numbered or lettered or watermarked or provided with some distinguishingmarks by which the identity of the two statements as a part one of the other may readily be authenticated. The duplicate blank is or may be provided near one edge with openings 62, by which assemblage between suitable covers may be effected.

As shown in Fig. 1, the duplicate is entirely blank and the original is printed on one side only with suitable ruling and the heading of the business-house employing the blank; but it is to be understood that the duplicate may be ruled to correspond with the original or be otherwise ruled.

In using' this sales-Sheet the duties of the bookkeeper and type-writist are as foliows: The charge sales-checks of a days business are sent to the office of the business-house as quickly as possible, there to be assorted alphabetically-that is to say, the bookkeeper on ledger A will receive all charges where the names are found to begin with A`, the bookkeeper on ledger B all charges where the names are found to begin with B, and

so on.

The present methods in Vogue in all large concerns are these: Generally the bookkeeper or an assistant folios all checks, taking the folio from the index, then turns to the account in the ledger and itemizes there instead of in the day-book, and by this the extra work of posting from the day-book to the ledger is obviated, as well the extra labor required in making up accounts. The bills are usually made up from the ledger; but this is objectionable for the reason that should the bookkeeper record the wrong item or price or post a check on the wrong account it would not be diseovered by him. To obviate this, under my system the bookkeeper folios the checks, gives them to the type-writist, and if the bookkeeper folios the check wrongly and does not detect it at the time the type-writist will be certain to do so when he or she is about to enter on the statement the items which are on the check, as the name and address are then compared. Then the operator enters the department and the sales-persons number or other information of a private nature on the extension of the duplicate slip. The printing-space begins at the date-column on the two slips. The date is first recorded, then the items, price per yard, or other charge and extension in the first column. The credits or merchandise returns are also recorded by type-writist in red ink in a similar manner to prevent confusion, the total amount of each credit item being carried out to the creditcolumn. It is to be understood that'the typewriting machine may be provided with a ribbon constituted of a multiple of colors. After the type-writist has finished the bookkeeper takes the checks and bills, turns to the bill to which the first check or checks refer, (and there may be several checks under one folio,) and adds the duplicate bill for that' days transactions, carrying the amount out in the total-column on blank space provided for this purpose. At the same time he enters the amount (for that day) on a slip of paper, posts to the proper account, and after finishing all in like vmanner the slip is added up, showing the total amount of charges and credits taken up that day. It is to be understood that the original bill is kept in as neat appearance as is possible, and therefore the sales as recorded in the columns are only footed up oncefthat is, just prior to the mailing of the statementwhereas the duplicate statement, which is kept on file for reference, may have lines drawn for footing up the totals of each day7s purchase, the bookkeeper posting to the ledger these daily amounts. To prove the footing' of the original statement, the ledger is footed up, and by having a facsimile of the daily entries shown on the duplicate statement the total addition of each must agree with the total summing up of the original statement. It is therefore obvious that the appearance of the original statement will be superior to the appearance of the duplicate statement, owng to the fact that these daily totals are made out on the duplicate statement. It is also very plain that in View of the comparison and proof of the addition IIO ' ticular month.

of the statement an error is unlikely to occur where the ligures to be added are not alike. lt is also to be understood that in some instances a user of the statement would prefer to carry these amounts on the orig'inal and duplicate statements until the end of the month, making' one posting to the ledger rather than from day today. The credit-column is likewise taken care of, and at the end of the month prior to the mailing of the statement the total amount of the credit-column is dedueted from the total amount of the debitcolumn and the net amounts of the montlrs purchases carried out into the middle column. This enables the customer as well as the business man to see at a glance what is the net total of the customer7s purchases for a par- Besides this advantage there is the one of earrying' forward the bill-rendered amount for the previous month, and by adding' the present monthis purchases with the past month7s bill the grand total is found, which agrees with the net balance, as shown on the face of the ledger. Under this system the bookkeeper does not have to temize the ledg'er, and his work will therefore be reduced at least sixty per cent.

It is to be understood that the statementblank herein shown may be a single 'sheet of paper unbound or may be one of a number bound in suitable book form. Furthermore, the ruling may, if desirable, be double, and each sheet thus present a double lining, and that it may be arranged in sheets, each sheet constituted of several of the statements, the matter on the sheets being' separated, as by perforations. This would enable the device to be utilized for all purposes connected with a mercantile business, such as blanks for receipts, checks, orders, records of shipping consig'nments, and for many other forms connected with a business-house where a duplicate record is desired with the one writing.

Having' thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1. The herein-described loose or unattached statement-blank or billing'-form comprising two members integ'ral one with the other, folded together, and separated by a line of perforations, one member constituting' the original or eustomeris statement-blank, and the other constituting' the merohanfls liling-blank, the

customeris blank being' provided on its upper face with requisite, appropriately-desig'nated date, items, extension, totals, and credits spaces, the duplicate statement being provided with an appropriately-designated space for a department-column and a sales-person-number column, the two latter said spaces, when the customers blank is folded over the filingblank, being to one side of the edge of the customeris blank, and the filing-blank being further provided with perforations near its said edg'e for attachment to a book or holder, substantially as described.

2. The herein-described loose or nnattaehed statement-blank or billing'-form comprising a plurality of members, integral one with the other, folded together, and separated by a line of perforations, one member constituting' the original or custon'iers statement-blank, and another' constituting the merchanfls filingblank, the customefis blank being provided on its upper face with requisite appropriatelydesig'nated date, items, extension, and credits spaces, one blank being provided with an appropriately-designated space for a department-column and a sales-person-number column, and the iiling-blank having one of its edg'es extending' beyond the edge of the customers blank and provided with means near its said edge for attachment to a book or holder.

3. The herein-described loose 01' unattached statement-blank 01' billing-form comprising a plurality of members integral one with the other, folded together and separated by a line of perforations, one member constituting' the original or customeifs blank, and the other constituting the merchantis liling'-blank, the customeris blank being' provided on its upper face with requisite appropriately-desig'nated spaees for dates, items, and the like, and one of the blanks having a marginal space for special and private matter, and the filing-blank having one of its edges extending beyond the edge of the eustomeris blank and provided with means near its said edge for attachment to a book or holder, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. 'GEORGE W. DONNING. Witnesses:

H ENRY BIRRELL, W. L. BILLMYER.

IOO 

